Keeping track of progress on creative projects
I haven’t done much with Winsor & Newton’s Canary Yellow, at least in part because it’s so light that it can be a little hard to see when drawing with it. But it made a nice combination with Sunshine Yellow (which in this photo looks more brownish orange).
Kind of an odd-shaped leaf, too. It looks a little like a mitten.
This one’s as notable for the “behind the scenes” as it is for the ghost itself.
Among the art supplies I recently stocked up on were ink refills for a couple of Copic markers that had gone dry. One was for C07 Cool Grey 7, and the other was for B06 Peacock Blue. The grey refilled and worked just fine, but the chisel nib on the blue marker still didn’t work even with added ink.
So not only did I learn how to refill markers, but I also learned how to change nibs.
The color scheme is a continuation of the idea that the ghosts look their best when the foreground and background are complementary hues. The contrast between the two background shades should be strong, but the foreground shades should be closer together. In that spirit, the background is YR68 Orange and YR61 Spring Orange (or on my very old marker, Yellowish Skin Pink). Regardless of name, I think the latter marker is going to need a refill soon.
The foreground is the recently refilled B06 Peacock Blue and B05 Process blue. Row 3 column 3 and row 5 column 3 were both drawn with the new chisel tip, which created darker squares than the rest of the Peacock ink applied with the marker’s original brush nib.
When I was a kid I drew with mechanical pencils almost exclusively, but I got out of the habit as an adult. Deciding to give them another try, I added some pencils and leads to the start-of-the-year art supply purchases. With some time away from work thanks to MLK Day and inclement weather closings, I figured now was a good time to take them out for a spin.
I’d never used any color other than graphite grey in a mechanical pencil before, so the red in this drawing was a new experience. I also got a set of blue leads, but they seemed super brittle when I tested them. So I’ll save those for sometime when I feel like I have a little more patience.
Nor did I have any idea how smudgy the drawing would get if I didn’t take any steps to avoid smudging it. The answer clearly is “smudgy.” As recently as last year that would have driven me crazy, but now it seems more like part of the fun of the process.
Close to last time, but the background is Nut Brown and the shadow is a lighter shade of grey.
New year, new paper. One of my purchases at our traditional post-Christmas art supply shopping expedition was a sketchbook of tan paper. I had some success in 2023 with grey paper, so I thought this might be fun as well.
Turns out to be right. I really like the way this one looks, especially with the black and deep red on the tan page. I’m definitely looking forward to doing more with this.
However, I note that it doesn’t photograph particularly well. I think the iPhone’s algorithms may be recognizing that there’s paper in the photos and trying to color correct to make the paper white. The result in the photo above is a murky grey appearance. The ghost’s “official portrait” is a little closer to the subject’s true colors, but even that one isn’t quite right. I’m super busy with the start of the semester upon me, but in the future when I do more work in this sketchbook I hope to have the time to do some color correction before posting photos.
